The group's second and, for all intents and purposes, last full album was recorded while Them was in a state of imminent collapse. To this day, nobody knows who played on the album, other than Van Morrison and bassist Alan Henderson, though it is probable that Jimmy Page was seldom very far away when Them was recording…
The group's second and, for all intents and purposes, last full album was recorded while Them was in a state of imminent collapse. To this day, nobody knows who played on the album, other than Van Morrison and bassist Alan Henderson, though it is probable that Jimmy Page was seldom very far away when Them was recording…
Them were one of the very best R&B acts to come out of the U.K. during the British Invasion era, as tight, wiry, and potent as their contemporaries the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Pretty Things. But as good as they were, their greatest strength was always their lead singer and main songwriter, Van Morrison, who even in his earliest days boasted a style that was raw and unapologetic but full of street smarts and imagination…
I was unfamiliar with the music of Don Pullen before the summer of '93, when I had the opportunity to play a couple of jazz festivals in Europe with my high school jazz band. The first was at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands, where I first encountered Pullen and the African-Brazilian Connection. I was so enthralled by them that when I heard they were also playing the Montreaux Jazz Festival, some of my friends and I made sure to be there. We were very glad that we made the effort to see them again, because their performance was awe-inspiring.